The 4,000 Canals That Fed Mesopotamia — Then Poisoned It

Ancient Mesopotamia's irrigation canals made desert farming possible — then poisoned the fields with salt. This film traces how Sumerians cut more than 4,000 canals around Eridu, how the ox-drawn seed plow and the Sumerian Farmer's Almanac from 1700 BCE timed the floods, and why by 2000 BCE wheat would no longer grow. It reveals why flood irrigation raised the water table and left Iraqi soils white today, and how a leaking pipe in the Negev led to drip irrigation that cuts water use by 70%.